My #1 Tip For Crushing Creative Blocks

I hit a block last week, prepping for my SF trip. If you hadn’t already heard me say a dozen or so times, I am going to be in the studio audience for Megan Auman’s CreativeLive course, How To Make a Living Selling What You Make. CreativeLive asked us to bring a few pieces to the studio, and even though I have many, many pieces already made, I wanted to make something special. Problem was, I totally hit a creative wall. Not surprising, since I had a pretty ambitious work schedule for myself the past several weeks, but I just couldn’t think of anything interesting to make.

When that happens, when I get hung up and kind of too in my head, the only thing that works for me is to do something different from my every day work. I decided I would start to make a beaded snake. I’d already planned to make a snake at some point this year, so I had all of the supplies and everything, and it was so wonderful and freeing to work on it. Bead weaving is meditative for me because there’s no choices to make, just follow the pattern and turn out the work. I only got about a third of the way done before I had to set it aside to finish getting ready for my trip, but the project is getting packed into my suitcase, and if I get a chance I’d love to finish it in San Francisco.

Your ‘something’ doesn’t have to be as elaborate as a bead weaving project. It could be as simple as coloring a picture in a coloring book. Adult coloring books are pretty trendy right now, but I love coloring books for kids just as much. Of course I have a couple of Hello Kitty coloring books in my stash for when I need an easy, uplifting project to bust through my block.

What if you don’t have anything? I bet you have at least a piece of paper and a pencil, but let’s say you don’t. Let’s say all you have is a computer. Check out PicMonkey, where you can take a photo and mess around with it til it’s completely ridiculous. If all you have is your phone, you can goof around with pics on Snapchat, make a totally dorky video on Sock Puppets, or play around with myriad other apps. I’m saying there’s no excuse.

Playing around with PicMonkey

So when you hit a block, crush it with whatever you’ve got on hand. Give yourself a few minutes to do something creative and totally pointless, because that is pretty much the point. And when you do, share your block crushing endeavours with me on IG with the hashtag #creativesmash.

This post was originally part of Cheeky Visionaries Biziversary & Launch Party. Amanda Sue Howell’s business just turned 5, and she celebrated by launching of 30 Days of Creative Abandon, a 30 day course created for makers who are looking for new ideas to set them free from artist’s block.

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